SEPARATION.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 232, 10 January 1860, Page 4

SEPARATION.

(From the Wanganui Chronicle, Nov. 17,1859.) The tenor of Governor Browne's reply to the Memorial, with 1593 signatures, for an immediate dissolution of the Provincial Council, will greatly influence the movements of Wanganui and Rangitikei on the question of Separation. Should it be favorable, the result of the consequent elections would be cheerfully awaited. If the reverse, should it be only another exhibition of the Auckland Government's determination to side with a faction, and deprive the people of their right to decide at the hustings between two parties who each charge the other with having occasioned a dead-lock, in the highest degree injurious to the public interests, then we prophecy that the cry for separation will be heard through the length and breadth of the district. For to abide much longer under the sway of such men as now form the Opposition majority in the Council is impossible. Let us assume, then, the not improbable case, that the Governor, misled by evil advisers (who bitterly hate Wellington Province and all it contains, save and except Mr. Wakefied's party, who play their game by insulting Dr. Featherston and bringing the Constitution into contempt), refuses to dissolve the Council, and the resolve to separate has become universal, what practical course of proceeding should be adopted ?

In the first place, we should act with deliberation. It might be even wise to wait for the results of endeavours, which will be made during the next session of the General Assembly, to repeal the New Provinces Act, or amend it much. And we really have bitter relutance to put ourselves under that unconstitutional law; which, among other iniquities, deprives the people of their right to elect their Superintendents. But if we must submit to the existing act there is no help for it, supposing the district is determined to cast off the rule of rowdies.

Secondly, before any public meeting is called for the purpose of considering the expediency of demanding separation, something like preparation should foe made by those who intend to take a leading part in the proceedings. Statements, founded on pfficial facts, relative to the probable revenue of the projected Province, arid estimate of the cost of governing it, should

"be clearly laid before those present, and through the Press to the public, without declamation or exaggeration of any kind. The first meeting should bea preliminary meeting, (md sufficient opportunity allowed for of the facts adduced, and a careful consideration of the important question in all its bearings, before another attempt is made to obtain an expression of public opinion upon it. Too much caution cannot be used in dealing with such a question as this.